1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a force detector and a robot.
2. Related Art
Recently, introduction of industrial robots to production facilities including factories has been promoted for improvement in production efficiency. The industrial robot has an arm drivable with respect to a direction along a single axis or directions along multiple axes, a hand attached to the arm distal end, and an end effector including a part testing tool or a part carrying tool, and may execute part assembly work, part manufacturing work including part processing work, part carrying work, part testing work, etc.
In the industrial robot, for example, a force detector is provided between the arm and the end effector. As the force detector used for the industrial robot, for example, a force detector as disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2008-164557) is used. The force detector described in Patent Document 1 includes a substrate, many pressure-sensitive devices provided on the substrate and arranged in a matrix, and a plurality of contacts provided on the pressure-sensitive devices and having parts of an elastic material in semispherical shapes. The respective contacts are provided on the many pressure-sensitive devices. Further, the area of the contact in cross section is larger at the pressure-sensitive device side (downside) than that at the opposite side to the pressure-sensitive device (upside). According to the configuration, the force detector described in Patent Document 1 may detect an applied external force.
However, in the force detector described in Patent Document 1, since the area of the contact in cross section is larger at the pressure-sensitive device side than that at the opposite side to the pressure-sensitive device, it is impossible to concentrate the applied external force on the pressure-sensitive device and poor sensitivity is problematic.